1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door lock apparatus applied to a vehicle, such as a four wheel automobile. More particularly, the present invention relates to a door look apparatus that includes a latch mechanism that, when a door is disposed in a closed position with respect to a vehicle main body, restricts movement of the door in an open direction by being latched.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is know in the art, some of door lock apparatuses include a link lever, a sector lever, and an inside handle lever. The link lever slidably moves between a cancel position and a non-cancel position, and when swung while being disposed in the cancel position, allows a door to move in an open direction by cancelling a latched state of a latch mechanism. When swung while being disposed in the non-cancel position, the link lever maintains the latched state of the latch mechanism. The sector lever is swingably arranged between an unlocked position and a locked position about a sector lever shaft, and disposes the link lever in the cancel position while being in the unlocked position, and disposes the link lever in the non-cancel position while being in the locked position. The inside handle lever is swingably arranged about an inside lever shaft. When an inside door handle arranged inside a vehicle is open-operated while the link lever is disposed in the cancel position, the inside handle lever swings the link lever by swinging about the center of the inside lever shaft. When the inside door handle is open-operated while the link lever is disposed in the non-cancel position, the inside handle lever swings the sector lever in the locked position to the unlocked position, by swinging about the center of the inside lever.
With this type of apparatus, when the inside door handle is open-operated once while the link lever is in the non-cancel position, the link lever is disposed in the cancel position, because the sector lever in the locked position swings to the unlocked position. Accordingly, the latch mechanism is cancelled via the link lever in the cancel position, by open-operating the inside door handle once again. Therefore, even if the link lever is disposed in the non-cancel position, the latch mechanism can be cancelled, only by open-operating the inside door handle, without operating a lock operating member such as an inside lock button arranged inside the vehicle. Accordingly, it is possible to improve operability. Related technology is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3588453.
In the market, reducing the size of the door lock apparatus has been demanded. However, in the door lock apparatus of the related art, depending on the disposition of the inside handle lever, the size of the door lock apparatus may be increased. In other words, because the link lever and the sector lever are swung by swinging the inside handle lever, the size of the inside handle lever may be increased, depending on the disposition.